Much like 1986

The year 1986 was a lot of fun. I was 12 years old back then, and was a sixth grader at the Wildwood School. That was the time in your life when all you did was play stickball, and cut out new pictures of Christie Brinkley to hang up in your locker.

Back in Elementary School, I was by far the biggest Red Sox fan anyone knew. I even remember the time when my fourth grade teacher, Miss Souza, took my best friend Chris and I to two Sox games that year. The first game was against the Orioles in June, and the second one was when Bill Buckner caught the pop up at first base, allowing Boston to celebrate the American League East Pennant with the win over the Blue Jays.

That win pushed the Sox into the post-season, and back then, 22 years ago this month, that was the first time in my lifetime (I was one in 1975 so that doesn’t count) I realized just how special and how great post-season baseball is.

The Sox matched up with the California Angels that year, and who could ever forget it?

Game One featured a terrific pitcher’s duel, except Mike Witt was masterful, and Roger Clemens took an early exit, as the Sox fell 8-1. Game two was the reverse as Bruce Hurst dominated the Angel hitters and the Sox evened the Series up at one apiece. But games three and four didn’t go in the Sox favor. The Angels won both games, 5-3 in Game Three, and 4-3 in 11 innings in Game Four. Bobby Grich singled in pinch-runner Jerry Narron with the game winning run, and at that time, it appeared as if the 95-win season the Sox put together was going right down the drain. The Sox trailed 3 games to 1, and the Angels were in a perfect position to take the series with Witt going at home in the fifth game.

Trailing 5-2 going to the top of the ninth, the Red Sox chances of coming back obviously weren’t that strong. However, Bill Buckner changed all of that when he led things off with a single, and two batters later Don Baylor smacked a two-run homer, cutting it to 5-4. After a pop up, reliever Gary Lucas came on and he plunked Rich Gedman with a pinch on his shoulder. Donnie Moore came on from the pen, and gave up a two-run shot by Dave Henderson, which amazingly was his only hit of the entire series (1-for-11).

The Angels tied the game back up in the bottom of tne ninth, sending the game to extra innings and in the top of the 11th, Henderson hit a sacrifice fly to score Baylor with the winning run, sending the series back to Boston. That’s when the Sox crushed the Angels, 10-4 in Game Six and 8-1 in Game Seven to take the Series.

Statistically, the Sox weren’t impressive at all, yet they still came away with the series. Wade Boggs batted .233, Buckner and Dwight Evans each hit .214, Rice hit .161 and Henderson was .111. Even the pitchers weren’t that great - the Sox gave up 91 runners in 65 innings.

The point of all of this?

Last night’s Red Sox-Angels Game Two match-up, was much like that series back in 1986. It’s all about clutch pitching and clutch hitting - it’s really not about anything else but that. Back in 1986, Calvin Schiraldi did get out of a bunch of jams, and did set the Angels down in order in the bottom of the 11th of that pivital Game Five. He could have easily relinquished the lead again, since he really wasn’t a great closer.

Last night, Dice-K got out of a few jams, Masterson somehow wiggled himself out of the big jam in the seventh, and Papelbon threw nothing but gas in the bottom of the ninth. That of course came after JD Drew delivered the monster two-run homer in the top of the ninth, his second biggest clutch hit in a Sox uniform. That hit, could only remind you so much of Baylor and Henderson (without his leap in the air) back in 1986, and how devastating it was for that Angels team.

As JD Drew was circling the bases with that homerun to help lead the Sox to the victory and a 2-0 lead in this ALDS, it didn’t take me long to realize how special and how great post-season baseball is no matter if I’m 12 years old and drinking chocolate milk during recess, or if I’m 34 years old and drinking beers with my friends and celebrating another great Sox post-season victory.